A CIO Blog with a twist; majority of my peer CIOs talk about the challenges they face with vendors, internal customers, Business folks and when things get through the airwaves, the typical response is "Oh I See". Some of you may disagree with my meanderings and that's okay. It's largely experiential and sometimes a lot of questions

Updated every Monday. Views are personal

Monday, July 29, 2013

She joined a
company, she liked the person who interviewed her and described the role, she
build relationships and was comfortable with him, she like her team and they
like her back, she start working on the agenda she wanted to drive, she build
relationships within the company and gained acceptance with her peers as well
as layers of the company, she was settling down into the zone and everything
appeared to be going great. And then her boss changed; could be a peer getting
elevated or a new hire, it doesn't matter.

Her castle
suddenly appeared to be like a pack of cards precariously balanced which could
come down collapsing at the slightest hint. The new person had a new agenda, a
new style, a new set of ideas and notions on how your department should
function, a new direction, and a new set of KPIs. Almost everything she
painstakingly built now appears to require change. She looked around to find
that for most of the organization there was no issue with the new scenario,
it’s just her and a few.

Her meetings with
the new boss were a discussion in stretching the boundaries and defining the
new ropes; she was pushed into new corners and suddenly everything that was
working was being labelled as needs improvement. Her old boss sympathized with her
but leaves her to fend for herself. He had only broken the news to her a few
days before the organization change announcement saying that it was for the
larger good of the company. She felt like the sky was falling but maintained her
composure.

She was a star
performer, which is why she were hired; the company needed a strong leader to
drive change and she delivered to promise and more, her credibility preceded her
joining and she ensured that it held good against all measures. She
contemplated a change and banished the thought quickly; she was a fighter and a
survivor, she also had a lot happening and many initiatives riding on her
shoulders. The situation required a different approach that eluded her. So she
started spreading into her network to seek help.

Everyone told her
that she needs to understand the personality and drivers of her new boss and
then work towards adapting to them. Like she manages her team, she also needs
to manage upwards. After all, the new person too is a professional and has a
pedigree because of which he has been hired. There may be challenges, there
will be opportunities too; it is up to her to decide how she want to use them.
She was disheartened, her professional pride had been hurt; she had attempted steps
with limited success.

Organization
changes have a way of upsetting the best of plans; at times these are internal,
they could also be driven by external, environmental and industry factors.
Leaders have to adapt to the situation and change strategies and plans; it is
foolhardy to stay emotionally attached to them. Do not take it as a personal or
professional affront; it impacts your ability to succeed. Appealing to your
previous boss may project you as a weak individual. If you can’t change your
fate, change your attitude.

I have observed
many good CIOs unable to accept and start believing that their winning formula
is being challenged. Some take the drastic step of leaving the organization to
find greener pastures elsewhere. The escapist route may bring short-term
personal victory, but it gets you back to the starting point where you have to
build credibility all over again. Those who are smart build relationships to
overcome the situation and recreate success. I believe that the choices are
driven by personal values.

Monday, July 22, 2013

His leaving came
as a surprise to everyone; he was going great and was synonymous with the
company and the industry for a long time. It was like he was destined to be in
that position tailor made for him. He reveled in this and loved the attention
and adulation it bought. The industry acknowledged his leadership and mentoring
of the minnows to help improve their well being. So when leading media and press
announced his exit, it was totally unexpected and unanticipated news.

Speculation had
it that he had fallen out of favor with the board; some said that he had
become complacent and thus was fired. Internal politics resultant out of
management shift was another rumored reason for downfall. Another said that industry
challenges and cost cutting measures resulted in high profile exits; after all
another CXO had recently left the company under mysterious circumstances. There
was no dearth of good and vile reasons; no one however asked the CIO lest they
rub a wrong chord.

Joining them at
the cusp of growth and globalization the CIO had spent a long innings in the
chosen company and industry. He invested significant effort which bore fruit
for the company leapfrogging it and strengthening their leadership position. He
created a high performance and empowered team who created success with ease.
Not that the journey was a bed of roses, thorns were a plenty which he slowly
weeded out and won the confidence of the enterprise and industry with his willingness
to lend a helping hand.

Industry bodies
and associations depended on him for thought leadership and his ability to get
people together. He improved the level of participation from across companies
bringing out the best to discuss and debate solutions to generic and specific
issues. Awards and accolades were conferred upon him with invitations to share
his strategic, pragmatic and practical views globally. It was almost like a
fairy tale in which everyone lived happily ever after. That is why the news
appeared improbable.

Tentative in my
approach, I decided to uncover the mystery that had many in the industry
wondering. I called upon the CIO and popped the question forthwith. Is
everything okay ? What happened ? Why did you leave ? Was there a problem ?
Where are you going ? Who is taking over ? You were doing so well ! He
patiently listened to me and waited for my questions to stop which did bring me
to a pause. Smiling, he then started to explain his position and the raison-de-etre
behind his steps.

My journey has been great; the industry adopted me and
gave me an opportunity to create new benchmarks in customer service. I took on
the leadership role with help of my CEO and support from within and outside the
company. Challenging conventional wisdom and fast tracking some leading
initiatives gave me the requisite platform. My vendors embraced some of the new
ideas and committed resources to experiment and explore. Many case studies later
I was the spokesperson for what IT could do.

The journey through the recession and upswing cemented
the business technology relationship to create new benchmarks. Moving from
projects to impacting business outcomes was a great feeling for everyone. This
partnership grew from strength to strength; for me the question was what next ?
My team was on autopilot and I was on a roll, at the same time a bit restless. That
is when opportunity came knocking on my door. It was once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to create again from ground up; in today’s world that is a rarity.

I liked what I heard and decided to take the plunge.
Leaving on a high is a great feeling when everyone is asking WHY; I did not
want to be where people start asking WHY NOT. Everyone remembers champions at
their high points of achievements and move on to the next winner as soon as you
start faltering. I took my call and decided to take the plunge while setting
into motion a process to ensure that all the effort of the teams did not go
waste post my exit. I am enjoying the new role and the industry has rallied
around this quickly.

Hmm, what a story, I hope I can do the same someday. Should you leave when the going is
good or should you build upon past success ? I believe that this is a personal
call depending on your risk appetite and the way you see your career
progressing. Whether you are a creator or good at sustenance with incremental
innovation will determine your calling. There is no one answer that works for
everyone. It is for you to find the right opportunity or make opportunities
where you are.

Monday, July 15, 2013

I met up with a
CIO who had taken up a new assignment with a new company in a different sector
from his previous industry; he had just completed a little over three months in
the new role. The company was known to be a market leader in the industry with
highly adaptable market driven IT systems. The company was growing quickly and
it was also a known fact that their IT needed revival and renewal. My friend
the CIO was excited about the opportunity despite butterflies in the stomach.

Three months had
brought some success and quick wins; he had faced a few uphill tasks too where
success eluded his team. We started chatting about his journey thus far, his
joys, setbacks, challenges, plans, opportunities, cultural fit, politics,
whatever; everyone was not aligned to the vision and agenda consistently though
there were only a couple of detractors who believed that in the transformation
the risk outweighed the benefits; change will be disruptive agreed everyone
unanimously.

He described his
journey with vigor and excitement in animated tones; initial days were great
with all the CXOs helping him understand the business, the challenges and
opportunities, the history and way forward. His team gave him a warm welcome
and fervently looked up to him to provide the much needed leadership. Down the
line as he traversed the organizations width and depth, he found that there was
a strong culture and pride which kept people together. He was happy to join
such a company.

Within a month he
had enough data to form a sketch of the company landscape and a roadmap of the
journey that would demonstrate the efficacy of his understanding of the
enterprise. He ran it by his team and then selectively some of the CXOs; he
incorporated the feedback into his finding and tuned the plan to what the
organization could take in its stride without being overtly disruptive. He also
received more than adequate time to detail the plan and its execution.

In the previous week
to our meeting, he had received endorsement of his strategy and plan including
the long-term funding. So the excitement was understandable and shared by his
team; from being in the laggards’ quadrant of IT adoption, they were on the
journey to the one marked followers and he hoped to get into the “early
adopters” block within two years. He also had freedom to hire his team to
execute the plan; he had started connecting to his contacts to explore. Sounds
too good to be true ?

What I have
described is what is normally referred to as the “Honeymoon period” in any new
company and assignment. Generally the length of the term varies from 30 to 90
days in which the person has it easy while learning the ropes and boundaries.
This is when the individual defines the flex s/he has to assert and where s/he
has to back off. Learning about the culture, people, process and politics helps
in creating relationships that aid or deter the journey. Questions are not
frowned at as you are learning.

A shortened
honeymoon based on understanding of the priorities and result oriented actions,
able to capture the proverbial low hanging fruits, builds credibility and sets
a strong foundation. My friend had more or less done that with his experience, rigor
and quick understanding; he made the best of the time to create a foundation
and set expectations with all stakeholders. While there were a few indifferent
CXOs and some sections risk averse, his confidence withdrew the negativity and
insecurity.

Honeymoons however
do not last forever; they are usually to set expectations. They are getting
shorter with engagements prior to joining in and expectations of hitting the
ground running. Gone are the days of settling into a new company and role;
information availability and competitive pressures now do not provide the
latitude of the past. I believe that irrespective of hierarchy and position
(more so when you are towards the top of the pyramid), patience levels are low,
performance benchmarks are high.

Monday, July 08, 2013

We need IT support and expertise to scale up the
application; there are a few enhancements and some bugs that need to be fixed. For
us it has worked well for the last year and we believe that it can deliver
similar benefits to other parts of the company. You know the efficiency it has
given us has helped meet our targets and we now measure favorably on most
KPIs. Can you organize for the resources at the earliest ? Thus started a discovery of an application that had gone business
critical !

The company had
engaged a big name consulting firm to help in a business transformation. The
project had been announced with big fanfare and branding that had everyone
excited with the potential outcomes. The initiative took off quickly with key
process identification and definition of measurement criteria. Review meetings
began with the realization to promise while dashboards sprung up all over the
place. These charged up everyone and the movement spread quickly.

Everyone
applauded the effort which was cascaded to a few sites with the same level of
success thereby ensuring that the model was robust and scalable. The
consultants had created a working spreadsheet model that automated the critical
process chain and helped improve the decision making. It worked well for the
select set of users who proudly displayed the results to anyone and everyone
who wanted to know more about their success. People moved on to other things
and soon this was forgotten.

The CIO had no
inkling of the spreadsheet becoming mission critical to the unit and the slow
virulent spread of the solution. It did not cross the business teams’ mind to
move on to an integrated and scalable formal application that would integrate
with the data sources rather than continue taking data dump and manipulating to
get to where they wanted. No one challenged the process as it slowly crept on
until the data size became unwieldy and a few locations wanted to tweak the
model.

That is when the
CIO was approached to rescue the situation. They wanted a technical resource to
help fix and deploy the solution. It was a precarious situation for the CIO
whether to push back or fall in line and support the business critical
application. There was pressure from the stakeholders and some CXOs to support
the solution. The easy way out was to let go; after all, the project did have
visibility and everyone knew about it, so why make an issue. But that would
have set a precedent !

My friend was not
known to be politically correct and ready to take a stand on principles; for
him that was the only way to do things. And that’s what he did; he asked the
team to submit the documentation of the system based on which the team would
determine whether the program could be supported or redevelopment was the way
out. He went on to deplore the situation with the CXO responsible and
instructed his team to follow his diktat. Reconciliatory moves to find a
compromise were brushed aside brusquely.

This was not a
typical case of rogue or shadow IT that ignored the IT function or the CIO
intentionally. It was never expected to become a business critical solution to
be deployed across locations. Every function uses spreadsheet to address simple
data capture, analysis or sometimes address tasks that conventional solutions
are unable to fulfill. Quick and dirty spreadsheet or other out-of-the-box
solutions are typical to any company today. They crystallize the need which IT
is able to qualify and address.

I do not believe
that there is a singular way to address this situation. All approaches are
correct in the context of the situation and the reality of the involved
stakeholders. It is important to address this tactfully without burning
bridges. My friend knew the boundaries in which he could push back and where he
needed to take a step back. Post acknowledgement of the issue, he asked the
team to support the scale-up of the application in an integrated framework that
had everyone move ahead.

Monday, July 01, 2013

The CIOs
represented first among equals; CIOs who had been consistently effective in creating
an example for others to follow. This bunch of score and some more could have filled
a museum with the accolades they had collectively received. They had gathered
to listen to the wisdom of a few learned men. Their collective expertise could
have solved many business and technology problems across industries. To a fly
on the wall, their interactions provided interesting insights into human
behaviour.

They threw a
range of technical questions at the speakers and some challenging cases which
needed fair experience to resolve. They kept the chatter on through and post
the session into the break and the beginning of the next one; the banter never
ceased. It is not that they all were good friends or acquaintances or that they
were from the same company or industry or shared interests; if at all they had
probably met before in another similar forum or maybe not.

Careful
observation revealed that within the group some voices were loud and incessant,
some broke the monologues with their insights only to be interrupted by the
dominance of the need for a few to be heard; or was it to hear their own voices
over the others ? Their compulsive need to speak was amazing and unnerving and
rather irritating after some time. “I
have been there done that and know it all; I have seen all situations, even
surreal ones that you cannot imagine. It makes me a winner !”

Bright eyed and
confident of their ability and success, another part of the group participated
with moderation; it is not that they were in any way lesser to the other group,
but did not share the need to speak at every opportunity and sometimes force
their way into a conversation. They made sense when they spoke, had questions
that made sense (at least most of the time and more often than the first group
for whom the sounds of their voices is the only thing that mattered). They were
tolerable in comparison.

And then eyes
fell on a group who rarely if at all opened their mouth. Through the
conversations their contributions were restricted to non-verbal cues, an
occasional attempt to get in sideways and then falling silent again. After a
few attempts they would go back to fiddling with their smartphones only to
awaken intermittently when a point was made where they had an opinion.
Unfortunately their views if any will rarely be known to the masses. Their
stories, travails and achievements will sound paler when compared to others.

I would hazard a
guess that this dynamics manifests itself in every gathering of learned men and
women across cultures, geographies and age groups. The participants even when
chosen randomly will in relative degrees form similar alignments with a few
dominating the proceedings while others defer to them. Spokespersons even when
there is no consensus on the view or what is being said come from the first lot. A person in one group may move a few notches
in another or demonstrate antonymous behaviour.

Everyone likes
and wants to win; some talk about it even when their achievements may have been
lesser than others. Their forceful presentations create a momentum that takes
them through. On the other hand a few winners rarely get noticed until someone
takes up their cause. Which is a desirable stand and which is despicable ?
Should you not brag about your skills and goals attained because if you don’t
no one would know. In today’s world how does one project self to get what is
rightfully due ?

There is an old
Indian saying “the peacock danced in the
forest; who saw it ?” No one likes a braggart though everyone acknowledges
success. Our conditioning refrains us from being the peacock with resplendent
plume; show some restrain unless you are in the showbiz or have a career in
politics. I think that if you are indeed endowed with the qualities that
differentiate you from the herd go ahead and tell the world about it. There is
a difference between modesty, being an introvert and humility. Know the
difference and decide where you stand.